Five things learned at this past weekend's Stellar Basketball Showcase

MICHAEL KUBEL / THE MORNING CALL

Freedom's Nick King shoots against Notre Dame on the first day of the Stellar Construction Catch A Rising Star basketball tournament at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown. -//// MICHAEL KUBEL / The Morning Call ---- Thursday July 9, 2015

Freedom's Nick King shoots against Notre Dame on the first day of the Stellar Construction Catch A Rising Star basketball tournament at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown. -//// MICHAEL KUBEL / The Morning Call ---- Thursday July 9, 2015 (MICHAEL KUBEL / THE MORNING CALL)

Five things learned from the Stellar Construction Basketball Showcase at Cedar Beach

With the exception of Thursday night when a storm sent everybody scurrying for over, it was a great weather weekend for the 20th annual Stellar Construction Catch A Rising Star Showcase at Cedar Beach.

The crowds were outstanding. On Linden Street, cars were lined up all the way down to J. Birney Crum Stadium, Friday through Sunday. And at one point Saturday afternoon, you had about 10 different schools serving hamburgers, hot dogs and other goodies in their "team tents."

It was like the food midways at the Allentown Fair. What a sight.

Sometimes I marvel at the interest of these summer tournaments and wonder why we can get crowds three and four-deep around Court 1 or Court 2 in July, but can't get 500 people to a big game in January.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and now there's a couple of days to get reacquainted with the family before four more days at Cedar Beach for SportsFest.

Here are five things I learned from this past weekend's tournament:

No. 5 -- Guys still love to compete and show what they can do even after their high school and college careers are over. I got over and saw the end of the men's adult tournament and loved how the guys were getting after it. What struck me, too, was how so many of them were Allen guys -- Darnell Braswell, Daquan Holliday, Terrence Roderick, Jalen Cannon as a coach. it reminded me of how much talent Doug Snyder has had over the years and how he has been so influential in bringing the best out of these guys and instilling a love of basketball in them.

No. 4 -- Dieruff, Freedom, Becahi and Easton were among the locals who hung around longer than I expected. The Huskies, Patriots and Golden Hawks all really struggled last season, but could be in for better seasons. Dieruff's Joe Jarjous talked a lot of about having the guys doing the right things and he seems to have a group that has bought into what he's teaching them. Huskies lack a big guy though and that could be problematic in the winter. All four are in the EPC's Steel Division along with perennial powers Allen and Liberty. That could be an interesting race next winter.

No. 3 -- I was very impressed with Central Catholic, who lost only to Parkland in the morning and then to Bethlehem Catholic in the quarterfinals. The Vikings have a rising star in Aidan Ellwood and really seemed to hustle and scrap in every game. This was a team missing an all-area player and Division I recruit in Zay Jennings, and yet it made it to the Final Four of the tournament.

No. 2 -- Lincoln Leadership is a legit program. I am very impressed with the Lions, who have been a District 11 tournament regular in their brief history and possess a lot of talent. Co-head coaches Maurice Moore and Calvin Robinson have provided stability at the top and there's a feeling of famly and unity with this program that I don't sense with a lot of other larger schools. Their fans made as much noise as anybody on Saturday night when Lincoln knocked off Notre Dame.

No. 1 -- It's very hard to tell where our teams stand in a summer tournament like this one because everybody, it seems, is missing marquee players to major AAU tournaments. Had Hershey had Dylan Painter, for instance, the whole tournament could have looked differently. It was also disappointing that Susquehanna Township didn't bother to stick around Sunday. Don't know the particulars of what went on there, but I hate to see any forfeits. So, you have to take it all with a grain of salt because teams can look very differently come December. Yet, for what it's worth, Parkland is still the area's best team. Even without Kyle Stout and Sam Iorio, they were super on Saturday and most of Sunday. But can they get it done in March against really good teams? That's something the Trojans have yet to prove.